Studying organizational computing infrastructures

multi-method approaches

Steve Sawyer

pp. 213-231

in: Richard Baskerville, Jan Stage, Janice DeGross (eds), Organizational and social perspectives on information technology, Berlin, Springer, 2000

Abstract

This paper provides guidelines for developing multi-method research approaches, provides several examples of their use, and discusses experiences with conducting a multi-method study of one organization's computing infrastructure changes. The focus on organizational computing infrastructures is due to the contemporary belief that these are increasingly critical to organizational success. However, understanding the value of an organization's computing infrastructure is difficult. This is because of their uniqueness, pervasiveness context-driven nature, temporality, the constant changes in underlying technologies, and the variety of their effects at multiple levels in the organization. These difficulties are especially pronounced in organizations with distributed computing environments because the dispersion of computing accentuates these effects.